Election results live: Hedge fund tycoon warns Mamdani’s rent plan is a ‘hydrogen bomb’

Cliff Asness, the CEO and co-founder of NYC investment firm AQR Capital Management, has warned that Zoharn Mamdani’s rent freeze plan would be a ‘hydrogen bomb’ for the real estate market.

‘A rent freeze is the hydrogen bomb to the atomic bomb of regular rent controls,’ Asness told the New York Post.

‘Rent control is one of the few issues almost all economists agree destroys the city. So let’s triple down. Genius,’ he added sarcastically.

Mamdani has campaigned on a promise of placing a rent freeze on all rent-stabilized apartments across the Big Apple on his first day as mayor.

In New York City, rent-stabilized apartments are a type of unit covered by a policy that protects tenants from sharp price increases.

Landlords are only allowed to raise the rents of tenants in rent-stabilized units by a percentage determined by the NYC Rent Guidelines Board. The mayor appoints members of the board.

Approximately one million apartments in the Big Apple are covered by rent stabilization.

As of 3pm ET, 1,451,942 voters had cast their ballots in the Big Apple, according to the NYC Board of Elections.

That number also includes the record-breaking 735,000 early votes cast.

This year’s voter turnout is the highest since the aftermath of the 9/11 terror attacks, when 1,469,454 voters cast their ballots in the 2001 race between Republican Michael Bloomberg and Democrat Mark Green.

In the 2021 race between Democrat Eric Adams and Republican Curtis Sliwa, 1,125,258 voters came out.

Megyn Kelly said her former Manhattan apartment has already plummeted in value as wealthy New Yorkers prepare to flee the city, and warned that young Mamdani voters are set to relearn the lesson of history – that ‘socialism always fails.’

‘I’m terrified of this guy getting elected, and I think that’s what’s going to happen on Tuesday. I’m genuinely scared of it. I think this is a terrible, terrible decision,’ she told the Daily Mail.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt hit out at New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani for implying the president could be connected to bomb threats at polling places.

‘I think this is just another example of how the Democrat Party unfortunately stands for nothing. All they stand against is President Donald Trump,’ Leavitt said.

Earlier in the day, Mamdani bizarrely shifted blame onto Donald Trump for reports of bomb threats across multiple polling locations in New Jersey.

‘It’s incredibly concerning, and I think that it is an illustration of the attacks we’re seeing on our democracy,’ the Uganda-born candidate responded.

‘We have to understand this as part of the general approach the Trump administration has taken to trying to intimidate voters with baseless allegations of voter fraud as a means of trying to repress the voice of Americans across this country.’

Here is what times the polls close across the country:

• Virginia – polls close 7pm ET
• New Jersey – polls close 8pm ET
• New York – polls close 9pm ET
• California – polls close 11pm ET

Donald Trump has been accused of secretly hoping Zohran Mamdani wins the New York City mayoral election, despite supporting his rival Andrew Cuomo instead.

The president gave a last-minute endorsement to Cuomo via Truth Social on Monday – something which could push liberal anti-Trump New Yorkers even further toward Mamdani.